A 95-Bcf storage injection reported Thursday by the Energy Information Administration was above most analysts' expectations as well as the five-year average, boosting inventories to 2.533 Tcf for the week ending June 21.

Most analysts had forecast a build between 88 Bcf and 92 Bcf. A year earlier, EIA reported a 58-Bcf injection, while the five-year average is 79 Bcf.

Stocks are now 522 Bcf, or 17%, below last year's levels after dropping from 559 Bcf last week. The deficit to the five-year average of 2.564 Tcf continued to narrow as well to 31 Bcf, or 1.2%.

"Considering the heat, it was decently warm, that's a lot of gas to go into the ground. If you are a bull you have to be concerned," said Kyle Cooper, an analyst at IAF Advisors.

Logan Reese, an analyst with Platts unit Bentek Energy, said the injection indicated that "cooling load didn’t increase as much as the increase in cooling degree days would have suggested."